Sexton, Tomac and SF Mud!

Mud, Mud and more Mud. Chase races to the win.

Rain, and plenty of it. That was the order of the day here in San Francisco, and thanks to abundant precipitation, both during the week and just about all day on race day, round two of Monster Energy AMA Supercross was a destined to be a mudder for the ages before the first gate even dropped. And when the rain intensified about halfway through the night program, so did the uncertainty of how things might play out in the main events. But who benefitted, and who came up on the losing end of the murky puddles in Oracle Park? Let’s splash into this week’s Saturday Night Live to find out.

The biggest winner of the night, quite literally, was Chase Sexton. The Red Bull KTM rider followed the book to the letter on how to win a mud race by getting out front, building a gap, and avoiding any mistakes that could take his wheels out from underneath him. The result? A brilliant performance, in which he led every single lap, and took over the points lead from Jett Lawrence. But even after such a great night, Sexton acknowledged that mud races are an outlier, and aren’t necessarily an indicator of how well he and his bike are performing.

“I didn't think we'd get here this fast, to be honest,” Sexton said on his comfort level and having the points lead. “I thought I was gonna really have to be patient and just trying to work into a good position with the bike and I knew it was gonna take a lot of time. We were testing some big, big changes the week of Anaheim. So, the week before Anaheim, they got me pretty comfortable with the rear of the bike. I was pretty happy with it, but it wasn't complete yet and this week we did some big changes and I feel like we're getting really, really close…I mean, we are good but there's always a little small stuff you can make [better].”

“I think from here on out…I expect myself to battle with Jett and whoever's up there,” Sexton continued. “Honestly, it could be a different podium every weekend, there's so many good guys that you can't really single out one person. It's gonna be a brawl and I'm here for it and definitely think I'm in the right head space and position to battle for wins for the rest of the season.”

As well as Sexton rode, there were moments when it seemed as though Eli Tomac would weigh in on who would be standing in the middle of the podium at the end of the night. After fighting his way into second place, Tomac was still figuring out the fastest way around the track. Sexton was faster in these early stages, but Tomac, who was a good 12 seconds back of Sexton at one point, started closing in on the lead as the race wore on. Tomac was able to get it down to about three seconds, but was never able to get close enough to put any moves on Sexton. He’d finish the night in second, while also jumping up to third overall in the standings.

“You know, my goal was to get on the podium,” Tomac said expectation wise heading into Saturday’s race after saying he simply "underperformed" at the opener. “I mean, that was my mindset and that's how good I felt physically. So, I wasn't like limping my in here at all. So, yeah, this is where I wanna be and where I hope to be. You know, Anaheim 1 was obviously really tough for me. Was just totally off, rode, really tight and there was nothing good about it. But here, put myself in a great position off the start there. So, key to be at least top three, you know, or in the front, like a couple of guys here did not get sprayed with mud when you go through that first turn. So that was my focus for the main and was able to execute that and then just try to stay on two wheels at that point.”

“It was one of the tougher ones,” Tomac put it simply in the post-race press conference.